Flash-memory drives with the private data of U.S. servicemen, including four generals, and details of military training are being sold on the black market of Afghanistan. The information, much of it classified as secret, was stolen by insiders at a U.S. military base in Bagram.
The U.S. military is investigating the sale of confidential computer files stolen by insiders at a base in Afghanistan, The Associated Press reports.
The flash-memory drives containing secret information were stolen by some of the hundreds of Afghan staff working as janitors, interpreters and office staff at a base in Bagram. At least that is what the anonymous sellers of the flash drives claim.
Four of the drives that an Associated Press reporter managed to review contained personal letters and biographies of soldiers, lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training, and the Social Security numbers of four U.S. generals and dozens of other officers. One shopkeeper showed a plastic bag containing over a dozen flash drives and said they were on sale for between $20 and $50.
According to additional details provided by the online edition Utro.ru, the Social Security numbers of about 700 American soldiers based at Bagram can also be bought on the black market. Furthermore, the private details of those members of the Afghan government that were seen by the U.S. forces as “problem makers" and who needed to be “removed" from positions of authority were also on sale.
As an added “bonus" the information on sale also contains video clips of servicemen playing sports, celebrating holidays, as well as secret briefings prior to attacks being launched on terrorist bases and documents classified as “secret".
Ironically, many of those selling the flash drives are ignorant of just what exactly it is they are selling. The innocent sounding heading "Season Ticket Holders" hides a diagram dated Aug. 6, 2004, showing the seating arrangements for a high-level meeting. U.S. journalists said that the agenda that day was the introduction of psychological operations using Afghan newspapers and radio to discredit those making improvised explosive devices.
One flash drive caused an outcry after two cockpit videos of air attacks by a U.S. helicopter and a gunship were aired on television. The U.S. military now faces the task of tightening up security and reassessing its IT security policy.
“Insiders are the most difficult problem to defend against. Even the strictest military methods of searching and checking everyone who enters and leaves a building has not prevented the mass theft of information. Those insiders managed to get hold of secret data without any special kind of training. They simply stole flash drives that were left lying around. In situations like that, the simplest way to block data leaks is to encrypt everything saved on flash drives or to ban the use of all portable media devices for storing secret information," says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: Associated Press, Utro.ru
